Notes on Kite Aerial Photography: Others
Girdleness
Lighthouse (39K jpg, Yashica Minitec Super)
Jan van der Elsen and I love to take a lunch break from the office and go KAPping, this was one of the results from one of my earlier shoots, and I think the one which really got Jan inspired. Girdleness lighthouse near Aberdeen harbour, a lovely autumn lunchtime, low sun, a perfect breeze, and a nice subject, pleasant company, and a rig which did as directed... KAP delight. As you will see from the gallery pages Jan is taking some wonderful shots. The framed enlargements of his Slains castle shots are simply stunning.
One of my favourite thrills from
KAP (which I haven’t read anyone else mention) is
"scooting" the rig out across the field in a
steady wind a few feet off the ground using line tension, then
after a hundred or two feet letting the kite take the rig up like
a rocket, I just love watching the rig soar up...
Fitdee
(32K jpg, Yashica Minitec Super)
One of a set of beach and harbour shots at the mouth of the River Dee taken on one of my lunchtime outings with Jan. Nothing specific about this shot other than the textures in the coastline defences, and the fact that it was a very salutary reminder of the "check, and check again" axiom of KAP. The figure on the ground is myself staring fixedly into my video viewfinder, wondering why I couldn’t get a picture. I had only fitted new batteries to the camera/sender unit the night before, after having rewired the switches.
On returning the system to the
workshop after this shoot, I found I had accidentally bypassed
the switch for the camera, the switch only operating the sender
unit. Consequently the camera had been switched on from the
moment the new batteries were fitted. No surprise that I was
getting no picture. I spent 20 minutes standing there retuning
the TV, bringing the rig up and down, switching on and off,
getting brief pictures as I turned on.. All the while Jan was
roaming round the beach and harbour area taking a lovely set of
shots. Finally I realised that this was not a shoot where I would
need video assist anyway and set off after him, rushing, and
making a mess of ill composed shots. Video is great in the right
circumstances, but where the shoot is speculative, the technology
gets in the way of the creativity. This shot was about the best
of a bad bunch.....
The lake shore (27K jpg, Yashica Minitec
Super)
Generally, as you will see my KAP leans towards a subject oriented approach. buildings, castles etc, a defined recognisable subject. Occasionally I shoot for the more abstract pictures. This shot was taken at a lakeside country park down in Cheshire, England. The park ranger, interested in my work asked me to take some pictures capturing the different aspects of the 10 acre park. I duly obliged, and provided him with a set of enlargements for display in his visitor centre. This one though, with its unusual colours, strong lines and textures seemed special seemed to jump out from the rest.
Pier 7 San Francisco (35K jpg, Yashica
Minitec Super)
Just one of the two hundred odd KAP shots I took during my 4 day stay with Cris back in March. Rather than one of the more specific shots I chose this one for its texture and composition. Sometimes KAP provides those pictures that seem to come by contrived serendipity.
Simon Harbord and Charlie Benton at Battery
Rathbone-McIndoe in the Marin Headlands (43K jpg, Canon
Rebel 24-mm, March 1997)
Cris speaking here -- I had to slip this image in of Simon flying his kite at Battery Rathbone-McIndoe. In the attached jpg you can see Simon's white kiteline leading to the right. This image was taken from a second kite that I am flying from my position at the left of the photograph.
Simon Harbord at Pacific Biological in Monterey (33K
jpg, March 1997)
Living on a farm, I get little
chance of real "holiday" so I took the opportunity of
imposing on Cris' hospitality during a business trip to Phoenix,
taking a break in the Bay Area. I had a wonderful time, KAPping
all over the place. On the Saturday Cris took me down to Monterey
to meet Brooks Leffler and also give me a chance to see Cannery
Row, the subject of one of my favourite Steinbeck books. Brooks
kindly played tour guide round Monterey and beautiful Pacific
Grove. All in all a great trip with lovely hospitality.
These then are a small selection of the hundreds of KAP pictures I have taken over the last year or so since rejoining the fray. It's been a year of real enjoyment, building rigs, getting out and doing it, and discovering new techniques, meeting and corresponding with others bitten by the bug. I've lost the feeling I used to have when I started KAPping in the 80's that I had to make money at it, now if someone wants to pay to cover my costs or get a couple of enlargements that is a bonus. The pleasure lies in the pursuit of satisfying images and creating the systems to achieve them. If others enjoy my work so much the better.
Final tip: Always carry your KAP gear in the car. You never know when the opportunities will arise.
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Comments to author: crisp@socrates.berkeley.edu . All content,
graphics and
images contained throughout are Copyright (C) 1995 - 2005 by Charles C. Benton
and are protected by United States and International copyright laws.
No text, graphic or image may be used whole or in part, individually,
or as part of a derivative work without express written permission.
Source materials copyright
(C) 1997 by Simon Harbord
All rights reserved. Revised: Monday, August 02, 1999
URL: http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/~cris/kap/others/shimages3.html